I have to write about the boat journey….unforgettable, a turning point for us all , maybe it was when the trip really began…. I shot a little film but the photo doesn't do it justice.
We'd had an exhausting last day in the sea off Ko Tao (Turtle Island), full of the usual cocktail of bliss, bickering and sibling rivalry, mal-functioning snorkels and a bright red kayak….
We had said our goodbyes to Mr Talek, the fantastic chef and shy, guesthouse owner and his very handsome but surly brother and took our last longboat into the port.
Dumped our bags at the travel agent, chatted to a lovely Malaysian woman who together with her husband, had left Paris to set up a patisserie on the main street in town. She was very jealous of our long trip together and raised her eyebrows when we mentioned India….she had had an unforgettable time there many years ago….we will be there soon…..
We ate a meal, bought our supplies at the Seven-Eleven and boarded the boat at around 9pm…..
It was old and wooden, colonial in style with very low ceilings, stiflingly hot with two storeys and open windows straight out onto the sea. There were fifty beds on each floor!! Each bed was about 2 foot wide and 5 ft long …Weirdly, I was excited, the atmosphere was intense...Louis definitely wasn‘t and Rach and Edie were very nervous after their last ,sickening 2 hour boat ride to the island…As we left the twinkly lights of the port some of us (apart from Louis) felt like explorers going down the Okavango delta rather than just another boat load of (mostly) pleasure-seeking tourists on their way to their next treat.
Two minutes out of the tiny, rickety port it was lights out, bed-time…yeah, right!
Will who was sharing my miniature patch of bed was the first to go, Edie the last about 3 hours later…We were a huge, cramped mass of arms, legs and backpacks. It was mad . “Like a refugee boat “the Danish man with his two kids said next to me, he had my feet under his nose for the next 6 hours. Rach (chief-packer and mother extraordinaire) gave me some earplugs and I was the next to go…
I remember spending the night fending off Will’s flailing legs and awoke to see him practically lying on top of Louis. At the time, somewhat romantically I thought it made me think how as families we can never really get away from each other.
The next day we were all shattered , landing at the port of Surat Thani at 4.30 in the morning but we all realised that if we could survive that journey, we were now ready for anything.
Edie says she loved it, me too, Will who is just permanently buzzing and making friends left, right and centre, took it all in his stride... we are all secretly proud to have got through it.
Four days later, I am now sitting in the National park in Khao Sok, a 66 million year old rainforest full of incredible lime stone cliffs and stunning 100 ft bamboos, bright coloured plants and creatures of all kinds.
We made friends with a Danish family and hung out them here for three days…rode elephants, swam in streams, went on night safari to see scorpions, monkeys, chameleons ..amazing.
Yesterday, we went tubing, riding the river on rubber tractor rings and swinging on rope swings into the deepest parts of the river…we slept in a the honeymoon tree house, 40 feet above the jungle (built for two obviously) but packed with us five and three different mosquito nets, very heath Robinson as Dad would have said.... but we were all pretty much unfazed….seasoned travellers we are after two weeks in Thailand!
Tonight, we take the night train to Bangkok and then on to Laos. We might even dare take another boat, up the Mekong river to Luang Prabang, who knows….
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